Hoxton-based tech firm Flavourworks has secures £3m in funding from Hiro Capital and Sky Ventures for its ‘touch video game’ technology.
The studio will use the new funding to further deepen its patent-pending cross-platform technology, which allows players to interactive with video-based stories.
It will also use the funds to expand the studio to work on a pipeline of new games.
The Series A funding round has been led by Hiro Capital, the new games, eSports and sports technology VC Fund led by Inspired Entertainment co-founder Luke Alvarez, Games Workshop co-founder Ian Livingstone CBE and Cherry Freeman, co-founder of LoveCrafts.
Sky Ventures is co-investing in Flavourworks alongside Hiro Capital. Sky Ventures is additionally an investor in Hiro.
Jack Attridge and Pavle Mihajlovic founded Flavourworks on London’s Silicon Roundabout in 2015.
Ian Livingstone was an early supporter of the team, having started his career in branching narrative games by bringing Dungeons & Dragons to Europe in the 1970’s and later co-creating and writing the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, the iconic series which sold in excess of 20 million copies worldwide.
Flavourworks’ first title, Erica, has recently been published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and is available on the PlayStation 4 now, with mobile launches following soon.
Erica is a live-action interactive thriller where a player’s decisions shape the narrative of the female protagonist. Beyond simple binary choices, Flavourworks’ proprietary cross-platform Touch Video technology allows the player to touch the world using the touchpad on Sony’s Dualshock 4 or a mobile device screen.
The technology allows a player to wipe a tear from a character’s face, or peer through a door slowly so as not to be found out, in order to discover a new perspective on the story.
“Erica merges the worlds of film and video games in a way that no one’s done before,” said Pavle Mihajlovic.
“Our technology combines the mechanics of traditional storytelling with immersive soundtracks and next-level interactions that let you touch, feel and experience nuanced, interactive stories. This is the first time a game lets you reach out and touch a real, live-action world and have this world react to you in a meaningful way. We’re so excited to be working with our investors to help share these experiences worldwide.”
Luke Alvarez, Managing Partner of Hiro, said: “Hiro is thrilled to be investing in Flavourworks as our Fund’s first of many deals.
“Jack and Pavle have exactly what we look for in game entrepreneurs: they have a powerful vision of inventing a whole new genre; they have innovated both the technology and the game content to do that; and they are getting traction with some of the biggest players in the ecosystem, including Sony and Sky.
“Cherry, Ian and I are very optimistic about the potential for Flavourworks and we are looking forward to working with Jack and Pavle as they scale. ”
Cherry Freeman, Hiro Partner, said: “Touch Video has given Flavourworks the ability to take the concept of immersive game play to the next level. From building innovative technology to developing dynamic stories, Jack and Pavle are revolutionising how players interact with games. We are also very pleased to be investing alongside Sky Ventures.”